The use of imaging systems to obtain depth information about a scene is becoming increasingly widespread. Conventionally, such systems utilize stereo cameras that include two separate imaging systems to capture a pair of images of a scene. Each image in the image pair represents the scene as viewed from two different vantage points. This mimics how humans use a pair of eyes to achieve depth perception. A stereo camera may deduce the distance to an object in a scene from the relative displacement, between an image of the object captured by one of the separate imaging systems and an image of the object captured by the other one of the separate imaging systems. This process utilizes triangulation based upon the relative displacement, the distance between the two separate imaging systems, and focal properties of the imaging systems.
Stereo cameras are used, for example, as a safety feature in cars to determine the distance to nearby objects in order to avoid collision with these objects. Other applications include machine vision and three-dimensional photography.